Evaluation of textural and sensory characteristics of three types of low-fat goat milk ice cream

• Textural and sensory properties of the low-fat goat milk ice creams were studied.
• Assumed no pre-mix effect on the three products due to the equal amount of additions.
• Substantial increases in textural traits were occurred in the frozen-stored ice creams.
• Flavors of the low-fat goat ice creams were significantly affected by storage period.
• Qualities of three low-fat goat ice creams were still acceptable after 8 weeks storage.

Three types of low-fat soft-serve goat milk ice creams were manufactured using whole milk (3.64% fat), 2% fat and skim (0.71% fat) goat milk, and evaluated for textural and sensory characteristics of the caprine ice cream products. A commercial powdered vanilla flavor pre-mix containing 0.25% fat (Alpha Freeze, D466-A9047, Tampa, FL, USA) was formulated into the three types of goat milk base for the manufacture of the ice creams, and textural and sensory properties of the products were determined at 0, 2, 4, 8 weeks of frozen-storage at −18 °C. Additional textural traits at 0, 1 and 56 days of storage were compared among the three types of low-fat caprine ice creams using a texture analyzer (TA-XT2 Texture Technologies Corp., Scarsdale, NY, USA). The results showed that approximately threefold increases in firmness and consistency of all three types of soft-serve low-fat goat ice creams after 1 day frozen-storage. The similar trend of elevation was observed in cohesiveness and index of viscosity for all tested products, probably due to the hardening of the texture of the frozen products after 1 day storage. Regardless of fat level treatments of the low-fat goat ice creams, all textural properties after 56 days frozen-storage revealed substantial elevations especially in firmness and consistency traits compared to those of the original soft-serve ice creams with extreme high variations. In sensory quality, storage period significantly affected the flavors of cooked (P < 0.01), sweetness (P < 0.05), freshness (P < 0.05), rancidity (P < 0.05), whey (P < 0.05) and oxidized (P < 0.05), but not in acid flavor. There was a general trend of a slight decline in overall acceptability of the three types of low-fat goat ice creams as storage period advanced. It was concluded that the textural and sensory qualities of the low-fat goat milk ice creams were still acceptable by the sensory panel after 8 weeks frozen-storage.